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Who’s hungry in Alaska?

Volunteers set up for a Mobile Food Pantry in Anchorage. (Photo courtesy Food Bank of Alaska)

I had a new baby and my husband couldn’t work…During that year I can remember the neighboring farms were harvesting onions, and they hadn’t fixed the road in front of our house, and the onion trucks would hit that pothole and leave us onions. I can remember going out there the very first time that happened and just weeping, because I was gonna have something to put in my soup that was flavorful.

That’s the story of a young Alaska mother without enough food. One in seven Alaskans, and one in five children, routinely go hungry. Those statistics come from the Food Bank of Alaska, the agency that since 1979 has been collecting and distributing food to nonprofit partners statewide.

We’ll learn more about the unmet and increasing food and nutrition needs of Alaskans, and the systems in place trying to bridge that gap, when Hometown Alaska hosts professionals working on food insecurity problems. Issues that often surface include tough choices the hungry must make:

Spend limited income on medication, or food?

Heat your home, or eat?

Buy cheaper and filling but less nutritious food, or fresh produce.

FBA also participated in a large national study released this August that puts food security into a national perspective. Find a link to the study below.

Do you use food pantries? Do you volunteer at a food pantry? Do you wonder what you can donate to the FBA?